Palm

The river holds a boat,

a canoe,

a drowning man.

 

The boat motors away.

The canoe slips past

with a swish-slap of a paddle.

 

The bent bough of a tree sways, stoops

to reach him.

He grasps the rough bark

 

of the living branch—

and lets go

of the splintering soft-shadows

 

of the speedily dying

fading toward the light

who’ve no time now.

 

Reaching shore, will he

sputter curses

at his fellow man

 

or praise the Creator

in the helping hand

and become a palm-giving man?

 

© 2025 Jennifer Wagner

 

Poetic Bloomings 

 

 “…only God can make a tree.”  - Joyce Kilmer

 

Communion

Sun, sliced in half—

juice and pulp and seeds exposed

by knife blade.

 

A sip of citrus blood

sugars my tongue

and I toss the hull away.

 

My requirements for the day

met: I laugh, belly deep, I dance

inappropriately,

 

I drink this

forgiving sun

into my fraying bones

 

and forget the upset

apple cart where I’ve piled up

all my shame.

 

 

© 2025 Jennifer Wagner

 

 

Dora has us reimagining something familiar or habitual with our poems over at dVerse.